DeSantis is OK with NCL leaving Florida

[harkinmr]

8 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Has NCL agreed to sail with 100% vaccination past October? If so, I must have missed it. The way I remember it (and I could be wrong); was that NCL proposed 100% vaccination from the USA only IF they could sail by July 1st. The CDC hasn't even responded to that proposal. Unless they have committed to sailing from the USA w/ 100% vaccination past October, it doesn't really mean anything since every cruise line is waiting until the Conditions to Sail expires to see what the new requirements will be to sail from the USA.

No they haven't committed past the end of October.  Not sure that changes the fact that they have committed at the restart and the other lines have not.  And, as far as I know, FDR is still committed which is why he has been pressing the Governor.  You are right that they could all drop any commitment once the CSO expires, but I think they will see the benefit of continuing to sail vaccinated at least as long as the pandemic sticks around.  I guess we will see.

[BermudaBound2014]

22 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

No they haven't committed past the end of October.  Not sure that changes the fact that they have committed at the restart and the other lines have not.  And, as far as I know, FDR is still committed which is why he has been pressing the Governor.  You are right that they could all drop any commitment once the CSO expires, but I think they will see the benefit of continuing to sail vaccinated at least as long as the pandemic sticks around.  I guess we will see.

 

My interpretation was that since NCL was the only line to make the proposal to start by July 1st. The carrot from NCL to the CDC was that they would require 100% vaccinations. Therefore; by default, they are the only line to put into writing that requirement.  If I'm not mistaken (and again, I could be), NCL specifically committed to 100% vaccinations only until October leaving the door open for changes.

 

The covid situation is so fluid it's nearly impossible for cruise lines to anticipate changes. I suspect much of how cruise lines respond will be determined by customer demand. There are several members of CC who say that the only way they will sail is with 100% vaccination requirement, but no one knows if the demand for 100% vaccination will offset the customer base lost (who will not vaccinate). Lots of changes are coming, and you are absolutely correct, we are all in the wait and see mode. 

 

[coffeebean]

On 5/14/2021 at 4:27 PM, coaster said:

Why the Villages has the one of the highest recorded instances of sexually transmitted diseases in the State of FL.

 

That is a very old myth and it still is circulating I see. LOL.

[coffeebean]

22 hours ago, CruiserRob said:

As I understand it, Florida law ends at the gangway.  Can't they just check your vaccine card/passport when you first board the ship with the understanding that you will be turned back with no refund if you do not provide such.

That may be a problem with luggage that was already checked at the pier. How do passengers that are turned away retrieve their luggage.

[susiesan]

NCLH brand Oceania will be sailing 2 ships from Miami starting Dec. 3, winter Caribbean cruises. As of now, the language on Oceania web site says all pax must be 100% vaccinated. Could this change? Maybe, the Oceania regulars want an all vaccine cruise. Since very few children sail on Oceania this is not an issue. I am booked on Sirena Dec. 12, I am vaccinated, but I don't care if this is dropped. I do care about having to fly to Nassau or somewhere else to board the ship if cruises from Florida are prohibited by DeSantis.

[BermudaBound2014]

19 hours ago, susiesan said:

NCLH brand Oceania will be sailing 2 ships from Miami starting Dec. 3, winter Caribbean cruises. As of now, the language on Oceania web site says all pax must be 100% vaccinated. Could this change? Maybe, the Oceania regulars want an all vaccine cruise. Since very few children sail on Oceania this is not an issue. I am booked on Sirena Dec. 12, I am vaccinated, but I don't care if this is dropped. I do care about having to fly to Nassau or somewhere else to board the ship if cruises from Florida are prohibited by DeSantis.

 

Thank you, this is interesting. I did go on the Oceania site today. Like everything else related to covid; "subject to change" is a theme. The requirements for 100% vaccination are part of the SailSAFE plan, which states clearly that it expires after initial sailings. So that begs the question, what is considered an 'initial sailing?"

 

By December 12 sailing, I would suspect that SailSAFE is modified to require exactly what the CDC requires (assuming that the CDC changes the Framework for Conditions to Sail). If cruise lines can meet the new CDC requirements, sailings form the USA will begin.  I can't imagine cruise ships continuing to require more than the CDC. Of course, the CDC could make no changes to the Framework, in which case, sailing from Florida becomes problematic. 

 

This is all so fluid. Many changes will come between now and December 12th. Here's hoping you have an event free sailing! That itinerary looks very nice. 

 

 

[logan25]

20 hours ago, coffeebean said:

That may be a problem with luggage that was already checked at the pier. How do passengers that are turned away retrieve their luggage.

The luggage would be located.  Same thing happens whenever airline passengers are not allowed to board flights.  The timing is not ideal, but passenger shall be reunited with their checked luggage at some point.

[chengkp75]

41 minutes ago, logan25 said:

The luggage would be located.  Same thing happens whenever airline passengers are not allowed to board flights.  The timing is not ideal, but passenger shall be reunited with their checked luggage at some point.

Big difference between airline baggage handling and cruise ship baggage handling, where the bags are stacked on carts and moved onto the ship where access to them is limited for hours, and there is no scan tracking of baggage tags.  And, depending on when you are denied boarding, airline passengers are not always reunited with their baggage until after it has flown to destination and been sent back.  That "some point" for a cruise may be when the ship returns after the cruise.

Edited May 16, 2021 by chengkp75

[Outerdog]

23 hours ago, coffeebean said:

That may be a problem with luggage that was already checked at the pier. How do passengers that are turned away retrieve their luggage.

 

Come back in 7 days. Or the cruise line ships it home. Whatever. 

 

Anyway, they won't be turned away if they show up with what the cruise line requires (and what makes sense) and ignore the DeSantis nonsense.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Outerdog

[IrieBajan54]

On 5/14/2021 at 3:42 PM, vswan said:

Two things.

 

The ships need to go somewhere. What is required for them to be able to access ports of call will be a factor in what is decided. If you can only access ports with full vaccination, that is what they will need to do. Not sure how DeSantis would deal with that.

 

There are many of us who would prefer - and many would only - sail on ships that are fully vaccinated. The 95/98% may be acceptable if this is being used to allow children to sail, but I would choose the 100%. If by having unvaccinated passengers there are stricter protocols for sailing that would also be an issue for many.

Port of call countries are working on protocols for cruises. Just saw this for Barbados:

 

"Cabinet on Thursday approved new cruise protocols to allow for the safe travel of vaccinated cruisers.

 

Senator Cummins said: “We are making a gradual return. It begins somewhere close to the end of June into early July. We have new ship deployments. We have our first ship christening happening this October and in a few weeks we will be having a similar forum dedicated to the resumption of cruise [tourism].

 

“We are looking forward to continuing to work with our major cruise line partners about their plans for returning business to our shores.”

 

https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/15/minister-welcomes-us-downgrade-of-barbados-covid-severity/

 

Curious as to which cruise line has agreed to christen a ship in Barbados in October?

Edited May 16, 2021 by IrieBajan54
punctuation

[don't-use-real-name]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Big difference between airline baggage handling and cruise ship baggage handling, where the bags are stacked on carts and moved onto the ship where access to them is limited for hours, and there is no scan tracking of baggage tags.  And, depending on when you are denied boarding, airline passengers are not always reunited with their baggage until after it has flown to destination and been sent back.  That "some point" for a cruise may be when the ship returns after the cruise.

The airlines when checking your luggage have a bar coded scanned tag attached and they know

pretty much where those bags are on the aircraft. UNLESS the passenger is removed because of

a security issue the bags may be left on board and returned on the next return flight. With the

security issue passenger and bags are removed for obvious reasons. If a passenger no-shows

boarding a flight after checking in every effort is made to find and remove those bags. There are

times when a case by case decision is made to delay a flight to remove bags. For the most part

the airlines are dealing with a small fraction of the luggage that goes on a cruise ship i.e.

747 - 400 passengers - maybe 800 bags on a average - NCL JEWEL - 3000 guests - maybe 3000

to 6000 bags

[richstowe]

On 5/15/2021 at 12:46 PM, cscurlock said:

I guess cruises out of Florida will have to follow the unvaccinated path and do the test voyages and have all the restrictions that go with that you know masks, quarantine facilities and port agreements for approval to dock if there's an outbreak.   So there is a path although it will be more money and more restrictive.  I'll take the unvaccinated non mask cruise.   

I'll take the vaccinated non mask cruise. To each his own .

 

 

[deliver42]

I can see DeSantis ordering the Nat'l guard to monitor the terminals to make sure people aren't being asked to show proof. NOT!!!

[beerman2]

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

I can see DeSantis ordering the Nat'l guard to monitor the terminals to make sure people aren't being asked to show proof. NOT!!!

Now that would be a total waste of resources. However it would continue to show Desantis wielding his power.

 

We saw that in Ohio with our governor.

[susiesan]

On 5/16/2021 at 11:43 AM, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

By December 12 sailing, I would suspect that SailSAFE is modified to require exactly what the CDC requires (assuming that the CDC changes the Framework for Conditions to Sail). If cruise lines can meet the new CDC requirements, sailings form the USA will begin.  I can't imagine cruise ships continuing to require more than the CDC. Of course, the CDC could make no changes to the Framework, in which case, sailing from Florida becomes problematic. 

Windstar is going against the CDC requirements. Windstar is requiring all pax to be vaccinated like NCLH brands, and they still will not allow anyone to go ashore independently. Because of this, their bookings are way down and they are selling their earliest cruises at big big discounts.

[BermudaBound2014]

38 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Windstar is going against the CDC requirements. Windstar is requiring all pax to be vaccinated like NCLH brands, and they still will not allow anyone to go ashore independently. Because of this, their bookings are way down and they are selling their earliest cruises at big big discounts.

 

TY for sharing. This is the reason I don't believe cruise lines will continue to require more than the CDC minimum over time. Initially out of the gate lots of restrictions and I support anything to reduce chance of covid onboard. A niche market may develop of people who want 100% vaccinated in the long term, but it likely won't be the majority. I'm very surprised Carnival has committed to no vaccine at all even from the very start. I understand their no vaccine required policy due to children, but I thought they might be more cautious initially. After the initial sailings cruise lines need bodies. The more the merrier. This industry is crippled financially. 

[CaptainWoody]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:34 AM, BermudaBound2014 said:

Do you think that NCL can continue to operate requiring 100% vaccinations and just dismiss 30-40% of their customers (the estimation of people who won't be vaccinated)? That is just plain silly. 

 

The fact that 30% - 40% of the general population may refuse vaccinations doesn't automatically translate to 30% - 40% of the cruise line customers.  Let's assume that on average the typical cruise line passenger is older, more wealthy and better educated.  If that's the demographic, I would expect a much lower percentage who are against being vaccinated.  There's also a segment that are indifferent to vaccinations (yes, there really are moderates in many areas of "politics") who might decide to get vaccinated just so that they can go on a cruise.  If I had to guess, I would say that at most a 100% vaccination requirement will drive away 10% of the customers, but persistent masking/distancing requirements might even drive away more.  Add to this the fact that most of us are tired of having to constantly churn our travel plans and will gravitate towards cruises where there is a better chance of sailing because the governors and CDC seem to be pulling in the same direction.

[CaptainWoody]

11 hours ago, deliver42 said:

I can see DeSantis ordering the Nat'l guard to monitor the terminals to make sure people aren't being asked to show proof. NOT!!!

That seems a bit silly.  I would imagine that the cruise lines will just require that a passenger upload a scanned image of their vaccination card as part of check in, while also suggesting that they have a copy when they sail.

 

I've already placed our original vaccination cards inside our passport books, so we should be good to go.

Edited May 19, 2021 by CaptainWoody

[texasaggies]

9 hours ago, CaptainWoody said:

That seems a bit silly.  I would imagine that the cruise lines will just require that a passenger upload a scanned image of their vaccination card as part of check in, while also suggesting that they have a copy when they sail.

 

I've already placed our original vaccination cards inside our passport books, so we should be good to go.

 

That's kind of what I was thinking that would allow the cruise lines (i.e. NCL) to determine vaccination status before the cruise; ask for it online. That way, it would seem to be out of the state of Florida's jurisdiction. That's a good additional measure of for the cruise lines to recommend passengers have their covid19 vaccination card with them when they sail.

 

[cscurlock]

22 hours ago, richstowe said:

I'll take the vaccinated non mask cruise. To each his own .

 

 

Yeah that is what I was trying to say.  Typo and for some reason I am not getting the option to edit post.  Never had that happen before.  

[chengkp75]

16 minutes ago, cscurlock said:

Yeah that is what I was trying to say.  Typo and for some reason I am not getting the option to edit post.  Never had that happen before.  

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner, drop down menu has edit function.

[cscurlock]

4 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner, drop down menu has edit function.

I did but the edit link is missing.  First time I have seen that happen by the way.  I just edited another post without any issues and the edit link was there. 

[Red-Sol]

1 minute ago, cscurlock said:

I did but the edit link is missing.  First time I have seen that happen by the way.  I just edited another post without any issues and the edit link was there. 

It may have been a timing issue. The ability to edit a post is somewhat short lived...definitely measured in minutes...but not hours...before it goes away.

[cscurlock]

20 minutes ago, Red-Sol said:

It may have been a timing issue. The ability to edit a post is somewhat short lived...definitely measured in minutes...but not hours...before it goes away.

Good to know.  Will remember that for next time.  

[chengkp75]

6 minutes ago, cscurlock said:

Good to know.  Will remember that for next time.  

I think its 15 minutes.